


Wanderlust

by pinchess07



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: A couple paragraphs about Newt/Leta, Cinnamon Roll Newt Scamander, F/M, Newt "Once bitten twice shy" Scamander, Theseus is the best bro, a little sad, movie prequel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-16
Updated: 2016-12-16
Packaged: 2018-09-08 23:23:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8867422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pinchess07/pseuds/pinchess07
Summary: He rides the hippogriffs for hours at a time, and still feels as if he is trapped and chained and there is an itch to get away in his bones. He wants to get as far away from Hogwarts as he can. He doesn't know what to do with his life. He was meant to look for a job at the Ministry, and yet it could not sound more unappealing to him. AKA Theseus' campaign to protect Newt Scamander 2k16.





	

  
He grows up with hippogriffs in his backyard. At four, he waits for people to bow to him before he lets them close, and his mother smiles indulgently at him. He is his mother's boy from the very start, just as Theseus is his father's boy through and through.

At five, Artemis, the beta of his mother's hippogriff herd, deems him sufficiently grown to take him flying on her back, albeit at a very low altitude and a very slow pace. He takes to it like a duck to water. He humors his father and Theseus when they teach him how to fly on brooms, but the experience cannot compare to riding on a hippogriff's back.

At six, he is first introduced to the rest of the pureblood society. He sneaks out of the boring party within the first hour, and goes back to his mother's hippogriffs. By the third hour, he has forgotten that there was a party at all, and his father is not pleased, but lets him be. Theseus does enough socializing as the Scamander heir. 

At seven, it is evident that he is a singular child, and his father finally stops asking him to attend the social gatherings that Newt always sneaks away from. His father doesn't like seeing him squirming uncomfortably, doesn't like seeing him shy away. Newt's smiles are blindingly bright when he is with the hippogriffs, but they turn awkward when it becomes evident that Newt can't connect with the other pureblood children. His father decides to stop inflicting the other children's presence on Newt before Newt's smiles disappear completely around people. 

At ten, his mother tries to prepare him for the utter chaos that is Hogwarts. His father tries to give him tips on how to survive, and reminds him that they are only a letter away. Theseus tells Newt that he'll beat up anyone who ever tries to bully his little brother. 

At Hogwarts, Newt tries to find friends. He knows people will never be his strong suit, but he tries. He doesn't lack courage, even if he is a Hufflepuff. However, each lack of success in his endeavor drags him down. He is only a child, away from home for the first time. He misses the hippogriffs. He can't sit still in classes, and his schoolwork suffers. He longs for the open sky on Artemis' back. 

He starts sneaking into the Forbidden Forest, and he grows to consider it his second home, more than the Hufflepuff dorms. He learns that he gets along with all kinds of creatures much better than humans. Spending time in the Forbidden Forest is the one highlight of his time at Hogwarts. 

This is how he meets Leta Lestrange: He is sneaking back into the castle, tracking mud and twigs and leaves and grass, a bowtruckle in one hand. He freezes in place when he accidentally meets the gaze of the Slytherin girl. Her smile is slow, and reminds him of a predator that has just spotted its scurrying prey. 

He closes his eyes in panic when she stalks the length of the corridor toward him. He misses the calculating gaze she gives him, like he'll miss a lot other other things regarding her in the following years. 

"What've you got there in your hand?" she asks. Newt flinches when he realizes that she's closed the distance between them.

"A b-bowtruckle," he mumbles. His gaze is firmly on the floor. 

"And wherever did you get a bowtruckle?" the girl demands. 

Newt's shoulders are hunched up to his ears when he replies. "The F-Forbidden Forest."  

"Brilliant!" The girl exclaims, smile ratcheting up a notch. Newt feels lightheaded and belatedly realizes that he had been holding his breath. 

This is the first time anyone in school who wasn't his brother or his teachers smiled at him. His stomach feels full of billywigs. 

\--

Newt Scamander has a type: the more potential for harm it has against him, the more he likes it. He's lives for the surge of adrenalin in his veins when he knowingly does dangerous stunts to impress someone.  Theseus despairs for his little brother, who had gone and fallen for the Lestrange girl, who does everything to egg Newt on to do increasingly more dangerous things for her entertainment. 

Theseus, and the rest of the student body, knows that Lestrange will get tired of playing with Newt soon enough. Luckily, Theseus has a lot of friends in a lot places, who are willing to take extra care to look after his younger brother when Theseus graduated from Hogwarts. 

There are two witnesses to "The Accident" when it happens, both of them Theseus' friends. They swear up and down to the Headmaster that everything was an accident. 

Luckily their Transfiguration professor, Albus Dumbledore, has a soft spot for Newt and the ear of the Headmaster. 

Luckily, Scamanders are purebloods and therefore certain allowances can be made. Newt is expelled on the day before graduation, after he sat all his N.E.W.T.s. He is allowed to keep his wand. 

By the end of it all, the most grievous injury is Newt's broken heart. He takes being reticent to another level and actively avoids everyone, even his family. Leta Lestrange does not attempt to contact him. 

He rides the hippogriffs for hours at a time, and still feels as if he is trapped and chained and there is an itch to get away in his bones. He wants to get as far away from Hogwarts as he can. He doesn't know what to do with his life. He was meant to look for a job at the Ministry, and yet it could not sound more unappealing to him. 

Theseus hears about what happened from his parents. He is fighting in the war, and their enemies are using dragons. He knows Newt does not belong in the front lines. But he also knows that Newt needs help in moving on, and he knows that Newt could make a difference with the dragons. Newt will think of something, like the brilliant brother that he is, to help them with the dragons. 

Theseus owls Newt with a request for help, and Newt comes a week later, quiet and withdrawn, until he sees the Ukranian Ironbellies being used in battle. Then, it is as if someone has lit a fire in him. Theseus almost regrets his decision when Newt single-handedly sneaks into the enemy camp with the intent to release the dragons. Everything goes tits up, and Newt acquires some very nasty burn scars. 

The dragons are relocated to Romania, to a brand new dragon reserve. Newt stays for a week, then two. 

Theseus notices that the longer Newt stays, the more listless he looks. Newt looks at the open sky longingly when he thinks no one is paying attention. He is happy to look after the dragons, but it is very clear to Theseus that Newt is miserable the rest of the time. 

Theseus asks around, and finally finds an opportunity: there is an acquaintance of a friend who knows something about the last graphorns in the world. He says this to Newt in passing, and Newt falls for it hook, line and sinker. 

Newt is off to find them by daybreak. 

Nearly four months later, Theseus writes to Newt about rumors of a Demiguise smuggler. 

In six months, there have been sightings of illegal firecrab breeders. 

In India, there is a Nundu that has been terrorizing several Muggle towns, according to Theseus' contact from the Indian Ministry of Magic. 

A year later, there are Swooping Evil poachers, hoping to tame them and use them in the war. 

And so it goes, Theseus giving Newt tips and locations and Newt following his big brother's lead. 

Newt doesn't mind. He relishes the days and weeks and months in the field. He relishes the opportunity to discover and save and rehabilitate magical creatures, all while appeasing his wanderlust. 

He avoids human communities whenever he can. He learns to be self-sufficient, and adds a mini farm section to his suitcase. He learns to cook, learns to patch himself up. He calls himself Mummy to his animals.

He misses Theseus. He misses his parents. He misses human contact--but he steadfastly ignores any advances from men and women alike. Somewhere along the way, he has developed features pleasing enough to the human eye, and he always catches the attention of certain kinds of people. 

He keeps Leta firmly in mind, and looks at her photo in his shack everyday. _Humans are not for him_ , he says steadfastly in the mirror. His outer layers may have changed for the better (his freckles are more prominent than ever, and almost always garners a praise) but deep within, he is still the same little boy who is different from everybody else. 

He is still not enough. He fails to save a little girl in Sudan  from an Obscurus. His letter to Theseus afterwards is near incomprehensible, and he doesn't dare write to his parents.

Theseus searches high and low for something, anything, to help his little brother from falling into another bout of depression. 

Theseus talks his little brother up to a small publisher in Diagon Alley, and gets him a contract for a book. This is not enough, Theseus knows, but it cheers Newt up a bit. 

 _There is a Thunderbird in Egypt_ , Theseus writes two days later. _The Aurors chasing the smugglers lost them at the border. Here is your ticket, along with your updated permits_. 

The thunderbird is named Frank, and is added to the case. 

Theseus sends him a ticket to America, so Newt can go to Arizona and release him. Thunderbirds, like hippogriffs, are not meant to be kept in a cage, and no matter how big Newt expands his suitcase, it still doesn't compare to being free. 

 _There are also several dodgy instances in the New York papers, Newt. I'll be much obliged if you check them out, because the MACUSA Aurors are having no luck. If you ask me, the occurrences seem eerily familiar to what happened in Sudan_.

**Author's Note:**

> Theseus continues to be the easiest to write (for me) and Newt is a sad little bby.
> 
> I'd love to hear what you think about this massive word vomit!
> 
> Find me on tumblr @pollethelazy


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